A case has been registered against the son of a patient on ventilator support at the hospital, for attacking the doctor and nurse.
The staff of the Bannerghatta branch of Bengaluru’s Fortis Hospital staged a peaceful protest outside the city’s Puttenahalli police station on Monday, June 14, expressing their discontentment over assaults on frontline workers. The protest was sparked by an incident in the hospital Intensive Care Unit (ICU) on Saturday, June 12. Two medical professionals of the hospital were allegedly assaulted by the relatives of an ICU patient on ventilator support in the city on Saturday. Dr Padmakumar, a senior intensivist, and Mala, a nurse at Fortis Hospital, were threatened and abused by the patient’s son, Jagdeesh. Following the incident, the Private Hospitals and Nursing Homes Association (PHANA) has called for strict action to be taken against the accused. “We strongly condemn violence against healthcare workers anywhere. Witnessing a deep sense of insecurity among the healthcare workers and demanding strict action against the accused, we carried out a peaceful demonstration today at Puttenahalli Police station and handed over our memorandum to the local police authorities,” the hospital said in a statement. The patient, Dhanpal, was admitted to the hospital for post-COVID-19 sequelae with associated pneumonia. While the doctor and his team were counselling the relatives on Dhanpal’s condition, his son Jagadeesh attacked the doctor and the nurse with his phone. Dr Padmakumar received injuries to his forehead, while nurse Mala was injured on her abdomen. An FIR has been filed against Jagadeesh and his mother, Jayanthi, at the Puttenahalli police under section 323 (assault) of the IPC. According to reports, the accused said that he assaulted the medical staff because he was frustrated over his father’s deteriorating health. In a press release dated June 12, Fortis Hospital urged for strict action under criminal law against the behaviour, and stated that the incident has made all the front-line workers apprehensive to work at the hospital. A day after the incident, PHANA called for the accused to be booked under the Epidemic Diseases (Amendment) Act, 2020, which has stricter provisions for prosecution of offenders who attack medical professionals. Under the act, the offense is non-bailable and includes imprisonment of up to seven years. In their letter to state Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai, PHANA also called for the provisions to be publicised and demanded that the judicial process as per the time frame mentioned in the act be implemented as well. They also requested the Karnataka High Court to take up the case using “discretionary powers” to ensure justice is delivered and such incidents are prevented in the future.
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